🚢 A cargo ship sailing under the flag of Barbados blocked the Bosphorus Strait in Turkiye on Saturday night, a source in the Turkish coast guard told Sputnik.

"The 80-meter bulk carrier, SNP Pazar, had engine trouble while sailing through the Bosphorus near the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, causing a pause in transit through the strait in both directions," the source said.

Ship trackers show that the vessel was en route to the Greek port of Kalymnos.

The source said that coast guard boats were trying to tug SNP Pazar away to unblock the crucial waterway, which connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and via the Dardanelles to the Mediterranean.

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🥴 All Ukrainians are equal, but some are more equal: the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Lvov said that his eldest sons will not join the armed forces yet

In response to criticism, Andrei Sadovoy said that he was against his two eldest sons serving in the armed forces. They are currently students, and Sadovoy assured that he would serve in the army with his children, but later.

Previously, Ukrainian media reported that Sadovoy’s adult sons are currently studying and living abroad.

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Tech mogul Elon Musk claimed it’s “undeniable at this point” that US President Joe Biden favors “open borders” in the United States in a series of posts on the issue Friday.

“No laws need to be passed,” wrote the Tesla CEO on his X social media platform (formerly Twitter). “All that is needed is an executive order to require proof before granting an asylum hearing.”

Biden’s willingness to compromise on the issue, which is highly controversial among elements of the Democratic Party’s base, suggests the importance he places on continued aid to Ukraine, which he hopes to receive in exchange for a compromise on border policy.

Meanwhile former President Donald Trump and some members of the Republican Party in Congress have signaled rejection of the compromise legislation in the Senate, suggesting legislative dysfunction will continue to derail progress on an issue which is likely to feature prominently in November’s presidential election.

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Outrageous neo-Nazi Ukrainian Center for Democracy urges Meta* to permit anti-Russian posts

“The Meta* platform should not prevent calls to kill Russian soldiers,” said Pavel Burlyak, so-called analyst at the Ukrainian Center for Democracy and International Law. He said that the platform blocks and marks as insults sarcastic expressions addressed to Russian soldiers, which are often used in the Ukrainian media.

Earlier, Meta Platforms displayed extreme flexibility in moderating anti-Russian posts written by supporters of the Kiev regime, turning a blind eye to open calls for ethnic-based violence. After that, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office raised the issue of recognizing Meta as an extremist organization, and the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on public calls for extremism and promotion of terrorism.

In September, Russian President Putin said that Russophobia, as well as direct propaganda of Nazism in Ukraine “have become the norm, as if there was no Nuremberg.”

*Meta is banned in Russia as an extremist organization.

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Around 100,000 demonstrators took to the street of Duesseldorf in western Germany on Saturday to protest against right-wing extremism, according to police estimates.

"There were sporadic violations of order, such as the use of firecrackers," police said in a statement.

According to the organizers, the rally aimed to put pressure on the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Smaller rallies, numbering thousands of people, reportedly took place in other parts of the country, including in Aachen, Osnabrueck and Kiel. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, of the center-left Social Democratic Party, showed up in Osnabrueck to call for demonstrators to stand up for democracy.

The demonstrations come amid calls to ban AfD nationwide over its anti-immigration rhetoric.

Despite the criticism, AfD continues to enjoy an ever-increasing popularity across the country, most prominently in the east.

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US National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art Del Cueto told Sputnik that it is upsetting the Biden administration continues to block efforts to secure the US southern border.

“It’s upsetting that the current administration continues to do everything they can to prevent securing our nation's borders,” Cueto said on Saturday when asked about the standoff between Texas and the Biden administration on the border.

On Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled that federal agents can cut razor wire fencing Texas installed on miles of the US-Mexico border, but it does not require the state to remove it. The Texas National Guard placed razor wire fencing along the state's border with Mexico in order to deter the record level of migrants coming into the United States illegally and overwhelming local resources and communities struggling to cope with the crisis.

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Germany is preparing a defense plan, the details of which have allegedly been leaked to the media

Berlin is reportedly developing and, by the end of March, looking to agree on the first defense plan since the end of the Cold War (OPLAN), whose main message is to “contain” the Russian Federation. Bild provides details with reference to “secret documents”:

▪️The plan highlights the role of the country’s transit nature in the event of a conflict with Russia;

▪️It formulates the need to prepare shelters and involve armed volunteers in working at infrastructure facilities;

▪️Experts proceed from the fact that Germany will not border directly on the war front. Instead, it will become a transit country, and, among other things, tanks, missiles, and so on will be transported to the front through it;

▪️The document lists not direct conflict as the main threats, but primarily cyber attacks, sabotage and disinformation campaigns. At the same time, specific steps are described if Germany is involved in the conflict;

▪️To prevent possible attacks on weapons being transferred through Germany, military personnel will be stationed on important roads, railway stations and ports;

▪️The civilian population will be called upon to independently prepare shelters in basements and garages. “The construction of bunkers in the remaining time is no longer possible, and it is also impractical,” the publication quotes the head of civil defense Ralph Tisler as saying.

In recent years, Russia has denounced unprecedented NATO activity on its western borders. Moscow has repeatedly noted that NATO seeks confrontation, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that further expansion of the bloc will not bring greater security to Europe. The Kremlin noted that Russia does not pose a threat, but will not ignore actions that are potentially dangerous to its interests.

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Former US President Donald Trump at a rally of supporters in the state of Nevada expressed concern about the disproportionate amount of aid the US has been sending to Ukraine in comparison to the funding allocated by European countries.

“We’re in for $200 billion plus and the European nations are in for $20 billion. And it’s more important for them. And don’t you think they should equalize? Nobody asks them. It’s like I did with NATO. I said, ‘We’re paying for NATO! And we don’t get so much out of it,’” Trump explained.

The former president added he doubts NATO's willingness to help the US, suggesting Washington's spending on the military bloc is unjustified.

"I hate to tell you this about NATO. If we ever needed the help -- let's say we were attacked -- I don't believe they'd be there," Trump insisted.

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Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (SBU) has launched an investigation of officials in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and managers of the Lvov Arsenal over the alleged embezzlement of 1.5 billion Ukrainian hryvnyas (about $40 million) from the purchase of munitions, the Ukrainian news agency Strana reported.

What is known about the raids:

▪️ SBU suspects the officials of embezzling almost 1.5 billion hryvnias (about $40 million) from the purchase of shells;

▪️ Former and current officials of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and heads of affiliated companies are allegedly involved in the plot;

▪️ The money was embezzled during the purchase of 100,000 mortar rounds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU);

▪️ The criminal deal was organized with the assistance of the current Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov.

How the embezzlement took place:

▪️ In August 2022, officials signed a contract for the purchase of a wholesale batch of artillery shells from Lvov Arsenal, then the defense ministry transferred the entire proceeds from the contract to the company's accounts;

▪️ The company transferred part of this money "to the balance of a foreign commercial structure", which was supposed to deliver the ammunition to Ukraine, but the latter "did not send a single" artillery shell and withdrew the funds received from the country;

▪️ Meanwhile, a portion of the funds remained in the accounts of the Ukrainian company in one of Kiev’s banks.

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The United States and six Western allies announced this weekend they plan to cut funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees as mass hunger remains a growing concern in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The announcement comes after the UN-aligned International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a ruling Friday ordering Israel to take steps to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza.

The UNRWA fired 12 employees Friday after Israeli intelligence claimed to have found evidence they participated in the October 7 Hamas attacks in the country. But the timing of the accusations, released only days ago, has led to speculation Israel is attempting to shift the narrative away from the ICJ’s ruling.

A recent study found that 80% of the world’s population facing “catastrophic” or “famine” levels of hunger are in Gaza as Israel continues to limit the amount of aid allowed into the territory.

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Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee for president, lashed out at the Biden administration on Saturday for allowing the migrant surge on the southern border to continue.

"Our border has become a weapon of mass destruction — our destruction," he wrote in a series of blog posts on his Truth Social media platform.

The former US president, who is seeking reelection in the 2024 race, wrote that 302,000 migrant encounters were recorded in December, in what he described as "an all-time record."

"Just 3 years ago we had the strongest and safest Border in U.S. History. Today we have a catastrophe waiting to happen. It is the WORST BORDER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, an open wound in our once great Country," Trump argued.

He claimed that "terrorists" were pouring, unchecked, into the United States from all over the world and that there was now a "100% chance" of a major terrorist attack happening in the country.

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☢️ For more than 20 years the US Navy has been aware of multiple environmental contaminants at one of their bases but failed to warn the servicemen, the NBC News revealed.

Gilbert Wyand, a US Navy veteran, had lived and worked at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California in the 1980s. After Wyand’s cancer diagnosis, his son found a Navy report published in June of 2023 that shows the Navy has been aware of radiation at the shipyard for at least two decades.

According to the report, between the 1960s and until 1980 about 3,000 gallons of chemical waste leaked out of damaged storage drums into the ground.

The Navy veteran could have been exposed to radium-226 and strontium-90, which are radionuclides linked to leukemia and other cancers. But Wyand and other veterans were not alerted about the potential risk of exposure because there is no system in place to notify veterans of potential exposure after a base closes, Navy spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Joe Keiley said.

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❗️ North Korea has fired several cruise missiles from its east coast, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

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North Korea has fired several cruise missiles from its east coast, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported citing the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

According to the report, the launch occurred at about 8 a.m. (23:00 GMT Saturday) off Shinpo Port. No further details were provided, citing an ongoing analysis.

"While strengthening our monitoring and vigilance, our military has been closely coordinating with the United States to monitor additional signs of North Korea's provocations," the JCS told reporters in a text message.

Earlier this month, a spokesman for the North Korean National Defense Ministry said in a statement that Pyongyang had tested the still under-development "underwater nuclear weapon system Haeil-5-23" in the Sea of Japan in response to the joint three-day naval exercises by the United States, South Korea, and Japan involving a US nuclear carrier and other warships.

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A group of 43 prominent figures from throughout Israeli society have released a letter demanding the “immediate removal” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him “an existential and ongoing threat to the people and to the state of Israel.”

The missive calls the Israeli leader a “clear and present danger” to the country and claims “Israel has leaders capable of replacing him immediately.”

The letter was signed by six former Israeli military and security chiefs and three Nobel Prize winners, in addition to a number of CEOs, scientists, and former diplomats.

The statement comes amidst continuing societal upheaval in the country and the economic ramifications of Israel’s almost four month-long state of war. Last week Netanyahu voiced his opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, a stance that may placate rightwing members of his coalition but will alienate his backers in the Biden administration.

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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has conducted training exercises to increase readiness on the northern border.

"In the last week, the Northern Command conducted intensive training to enhance readiness for combat on the northern border. As part of recent training programs for reservist battalions on the northern front, soldiers of the Northern Paratroopers Brigade (226) and Combat Engineering forces performed training exercises. The exercises prepared troops for combat in densely populated urban areas, winter weather conditions, and in the northern terrain," the IDF said on Telegram.

The IDF said the training combined tanks, combat engineering, infantry and artillery forces.

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“We get thousands of people into our recruiting stations every year that want to join the Navy but do not have an education credential,” said the branch’s chief of personnel Vice Admiral Rick Cheeseman.

Now, the Navy will accept some of those potential recruits lacking a high school diploma or GED after announcing they’re lowering their recruitment standards. The change in policy comes as the Navy reports having trouble meeting its yearly recruiting goals. The Air Force and Army also reported falling short by thousands of recruits last year.

Recent polling shows Americans’ confidence in the country’s armed forces has reached a two decade low.

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Biden's border 'reforms' are political posturing - expert explains

A bipartisan immigration bill endorsed by US President Joe Biden amid a standoff between Texas and the federal government “is solely designed to persuade gullible Republicans to support sending more money to Ukraine in return for non–existent ‘reforms’ at the border," Michael Shannon, a political commentator and Newsmax columnist, told Sputnik.

"Existing US law provides all the enforcement authority necessary to close the border. Leftists just refuse to use that authority," Shannon pointed out.

Commenting on POTUS' promise that the bill, if passed, would be "the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border," the analyst said the promise "indicates that Joe Biden remains an unrepentant liar."

The Biden administration "has no intention of closing the border, and even if they did, it's too late. What is required is closing the border AND relentless, mass deportations of illegals regardless of how long they've been inside the border breaking the law," Shannon asserted.

Biden on Friday pledged to stop crossings at the country's southern border when it's "overwhelmed" if Congress approves a bipartisan immigration bill giving him such authority.

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